Sundown – Film Review

A wealthy man is vacationing with loved ones at a resort in Acapulco, Mexico until he receives a phone call. There’s been a death in the family, and everyone must return home. However, the man pretends to lose his passport, which delays his return.

Talking about Michel Franco‘s Sundown is quite difficult, mainly because it’s not at all a “bad” movie per se, but it’s also nowhere near being a good one. Running at a breezy eighty-three minutes, the film seriously struggles to find its footing and it’s never quite sure exactly what type of film it wants to be. In the opening few minutes, it almost seems as if it’s going down the tragedy route, which certainly would’ve been interesting.

However, it then turns into this super-serious drama about a man named Neil abandoning his vacation after the sudden death of his mother. This was the movie it should’ve been. The screenwriters could’ve penned a gripping story about this man and what goes through his mind. Instead, we are “treated” to countless scenes of Neil just kind of moseying around the city and looking miserable for the remainder of the running time.

And strangely enough, toward the start of the third act, it almost seemed as if Franco wanted to make the film a romance of sorts. Long story short – this movie is absolutely all over the place, and it’s incredibly evident the moment a tonal shift occurs. Obviously, tonal shifts in film are welcome as long as they feel natural and like they fit into the story nicely. Here, none of the shifts work all that well.

But to be completely honest, I cannot say that I was “bored” while watching Sundown. The performances here are all stellar. Tim Roth is entertaining in the role of Neil, although I do wish the film gave him more to do than just kind of walk around and act annoyed with everything. Charlotte Gainsbourg is also exceptional in the role of Alice, despite the fact that we barely ever see her character on-screen. She’s mentioned a lot, but her actually screen-time is sadly limited.

Yves Cape‘s cinematography is also wonderful to look at. It’s full of stunning wides and some powerful close-ups when need be, distracting us from the fact that, overall, this movie just isn’t all that good, unfortunately. It’s just a shame that there are so many things technically great about this movie but the overall experience with it was so underwhelming. There are much worse ways to spend eighty-three minutes of your day, but even still, Sundown is not a movie I’d recommend. Roth has better films out there, so you should just seek out one of those instead.